Honored to do it

Friday

May 25, 2007 at 12:01 AMMay 25, 2007 at 6:22 PM

That summer, Sugar Bear Hamilton was a literal giant, a perennial All-Pro lineman in the NFL who tipped the scales at around 300 pounds.

Seoane, on the other hand, had started up a business in landscape design, and what he may have lacked in terms of professional business training — he was a recent college graduate in his early twenties — he made up for with hard work and some entrepreneurial moxie.

Matthew J. Gill

That summer, Sugar Bear Hamilton was a literal giant, a perennial All-Pro lineman in the NFL who tipped the scales at around 300 pounds.

Seoane, on the other hand, had started up a business in landscape design, and what he may have lacked in terms of professional business training — he was a recent college graduate in his early twenties — he made up for with hard work and some entrepreneurial moxie.

With his Volkswagen loaded with landscaping tools and machinery, Seoane said he simply drove around the richest neighborhoods on the South Shore, knocking on doors to drum up landscaping work for his young business.

When his knocks were answered, he would talk to the homeowners about landscape design, and the ways in which he could make their affluent properties even more attractive.

In just this fashion, Seoane met Sugar Bear Hamilton at the athlete’s home in Sharon, and after completing some quality work for the interior lineman, Seoane went on to do landscaping for other Patriot team members including Julius Adams, Matt Cavanaugh and Mike Haynes.

“I needed the work,” Seoane recalled, “and nobody was going to call me on the phone. One job led to another and another, and sometimes I’d do half a neighborhood.”

More than three decades later, Seoane and his brother and business partner David Seoane of Norwell have established a strong business on the South Shore, with loyal customers calling annually for landscape work, or stopping by Seoane’s Garden Center on Bedford Street in Abington.

And this spring, the relationships the brothers have built up with customers over the years — many of which have blossomed into strong friendships — have helped Lou Seoane reach and surpass a fundraising goal he’s set for himself.

A resident of Marshfield, Seoane has been raising money for the Massachusetts chapter of the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society for the past month.

He and five other Bay State residents have been named finalists for the society’s Man of the Year for 2007 award.

The candidate who raises the most money in the effort will be awarded the title — the society’s Man, or Woman, of the Year.

“The time I have spent during the hectic landscape season to raise funds has shed new light on my business,” Seoane said. “It’s given me the chance to reflect on what’s really important. It’s not too much about who wins Man of the Year [or Woman of the Year]. It’s just the total amount raised.”

In his lifetime, Seoane said several members of his family have battled cancer, including his mother who recently had lung cancer. One of his first cousins, too, has been living with leukemia for about 30 years, since he was just a boy.

In addition, one of Seoane’s close friends, Hingham resident Jerry Goldberg, was diagnosed with leukemia a few years ago. Ironically, prior to his leukemia diagnosis, which came to light following a simple physical, Goldberg had raised money for the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society, and was a runner up in a previous Man of the Year contest.

Earlier this year, Seoane said Goldberg approached him about the fundraiser, and asked him to get involved.

“I felt pretty honored to do it,” Seoane said, adding that this was the first opportunity he’s come across to really get personally involved in an effort to fight cancer.

When he began raising the funds about one month ago — sending out letters to family, friends, and hundreds of the clients he’s met during the last three decades of working on the South Shore — Seoane set a goal for himself of raising $20,000.

As of last week, he’d already brought in $30,000, much of which has been donated from his clientele.

“I’m just very thankful, not only to family members and friends, but also to my landscape clients who we know personally,” he said. “All the good business that I’ve done has come back now.”

This year’s fundraiser will come to an end May 30 with a grand finale event to be held at the Westin Hotel in Boston.

It will be a formal affair, with dinner, drinks and a last chance to donate to the cause.

The event will feature a silent auction with artwork, interesting vacations, gift certificates to local restaurants and shops as well as a free landscaping job that will be completed by Seoane Landscape Design.

To make a donation, log onto the website www.lls.org/ma, and look for the name Lou Seoane.

For more information, call Seoane Landscape Design at (781) 878-1306 or drop in to the garden center at 551 Bedford Street in North Abington.